At least once in a lifetime, every employee must have caught himself thinking: “What am I even doing here?”. Already at this point, the feeling of catastrophe is inevitable. The vast majority believe that there was a terrible mistake in profession choosing, whereas, in fact, the problem is with the career type. It is sufficient to revise your vector of career promotion and development, and the feeling from work will become completely different.
Picture this
You are working as an accountant or a lawyer and at some point, you experience disillusionment in your profession. The cause is constant stress and sleepless nights – that’s how you start dreaming of joining freelance artists. Obsessed with this marvelous idea, you start enrolling yourself in various art workshops, burning a bridge over, rewriting your resume, hiring Linkedin profile writing services to refresh your self-branding in the social networks. But wait. This whim doesn’t mean whatsoever that you have to rebuild yourself, leaving your familiar job routine. Think again carefully and try to analyze the situation soberly. Is it really brushes and easels that attract you or it has nothing to do with painting? Probably, the thing you’re longing for is independence and the ability to manage your time. It can even be about seeking to assert yourself forcefully. Briefly, the crux is to reorganize the work so that you fully satisfy those needs and feel yourself as if all the discomfort has mended. Consequently, someone will enjoy the freelance, and for someone running his own business is the only way to reveal himself. This is a career type, roughly speaking. It is not about being a “technical staff”, “specialist”, “line manager”, or “top manager”. The concept of a career type is much more profound.
What is the career type?
We are all different, it goes without question. Someone takes the work simply as a source of earnings as the core values and interests are in traveling, family, and hobbies. The others will insist on work as the main interest and meaning of life. The first group will easily turn off all work-related thoughts as soon as the clock strikes at the end of the working day. The second group in their turn will never let the work-related thoughts go. Some people contain a fair share of ambition and consider it important to achieve leadership positions or create something fundamentally new. On the other side, there are those who just want to peacefully go about their niche, freed from external disturbances. Similarly, some people consider tough tasks and risks as stressful, but for someone, it’s just an energizing challenge.
Corporate type
- The ideal candidates: practical and cautious people, ready for compromises, but not devoid of ambitions.
- Major expectations for work: stability, income, comfortable conditions, prestige.
- Concerns: risks, foggy perspectives.
It seems that expectations will resonate with the vast majority of job-seekers. In reality, however, it’s quite different. The notion of “stability” was not coincidentally mentioned in the first place. People of this type appreciate it above bright, but risky prospects. Additionally, it is still difficult for them to endure heavy and uneven workloads “here and now” for the sake of a brilliant future. Therefore, entrepreneurial activities are not very suitable for them, even if it promises much higher incomes compared to the wages. Stressful work in a startup with small incomes is also not for them: “What if the project doesn’t shine up, and I’m just wasting my time?”. People of this type are ready to obey the tough rules and sacrifice a keen interest in work for the sake of a good salary. On the contrary, even the most interesting and creative position in the world will not suit them if they’re paid little for it.
Statistical type
- The ideal candidates: unambitious people for whom work and money is definitely not the main thing in life.
- The major expectations for work: stability, complete clarity of tasks and functions, psychological comfort.
- Concerns: vague tasks or multitasking, high workload, responsibility.
People of this type are not good at coping with the routine tasks assigned to them. The main thing is to avoid overtime working and elusive goals. Any activity that requires serious involvement or creative approach, making responsible decisions, the kind of work that does not let you forget about itself even on vacation or at weekends, is absolutely unsuitable for a statistical type. For the comfort is pretty much sufficient, so prestige and career growth are depreciated.
Professional type
- Candidates: practical, but at the same time enthusiastic people for whom not only income and comfort are important, but also self-realization in their favorite field.
- The major expectations for work: professional growth and self-development, interesting and important content of the work, but under the condition of comfortable and stable conditions, good salary.
- Concerns: boredom, stagnation, small salary.
For such people work seems to be about more than just a source of income. At work with boring duties and the lack of professional development, even a high salary does not save them from yearning and feeling dissatisfied with life.
Creative type
- Candidates: highly enthusiastic workers for whom calling is everything
- The major expectations for work: An interesting and important work that gives a chance to create something new, outstanding, self-realization.
- Concerns: routine tasks, work on instructions
This is a rare type of person who is ready to work with burning eyes for “the idea” without thinking too hard about money or comfort. Not that they would not worry about the material side of life, just the need to do what you love is in high priority. If such people are forced to hold an unenjoyable position, salary won’t relieve them from the feeling of severe dissatisfaction with life – and sooner or later the crisis comes.
Entrepreneurial type
- Candidates: active, ambitious, and gambling people
- The major expectations for work: The growth of income and life status, independence, the opportunity to express themselves, do something that will cause respect and admiration.
- Concerns: the role of a cog in the wheel, drudgery
People of this type enjoy the development of new projects, are not afraid to take responsibility for decisions, are ready to take risks for bright prospects, and are able to run themselves ragged. The harder the task, the greater the excitement. In what others see stress, they, contrary, see the drive. They can be compared with lovers of extreme sports. The kind of work, where they have to be simply performers, especially if they need to execute other people’s decisions, will never bring joy to them.
How do the career types change?
The tendency towards one or another career type may change during life. At one stage, one thing is more important for us, after a while it is different. For example, many women, while they have little children, are focused on a static career type, but then a great desire of showing their true mettle appears and the routine work on the ordinary position starts being wearisome. And vice versa, firmer promotion seekers who have sacrificed many years to work on the upper-level position in a large corporation, one day they may experience an acute need to shift to a simple, relaxing freelance just to enjoy life thoroughly. It’s pretty sad that many of us are mistaken in choosing a career type. A typical example: a talented specialist prone to professional career type, for the sake of money, rushes into entrepreneurship or agrees to lead the project, where he instead of being an expert will have managerial functions. In the end, it turns out that the entrepreneurial type of career isn’t for him, thus he is under constant stress and lacks expert work.
Taking a big leap of faith seems to be a frivolous idea, bound to fail from the very start. Although, performing a hated work daily while secretly counting the days up until you reach retirement is like self-flagellation. Bear in mind – it is never too late to change your profession or correct the vector of your career advancement. After all, professional activities are a significant part of our life. So let it be pleasant!
